Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Crazy NFL

With the Chiefs poised to miss out on
the play-offs this season (barring a miracle of monumental
proportions) it's time to take stock.

Most people know that I am no real fan
of soccer. Conversely, I'm a big NFL fan – mostly of the Chiefs,
but I will religiously watch the play-offs no matter who's in and
who's out.

My big gripe with soccer football is
the basic unfairness of the game.

Good play often gets no reward and
minor mistakes can be punished far more than is warranted. When it
comes to officiating, things are even worse. One man, the referee,
attempts to police a large field with 22 people trying to kick a ball
(and sometimes each other). In some respects it is a minor miracle
that the ref gets some things correct at all. Take Saturday's Derby
v Norwich City game. I said at the time that the ref had a good
game. Some of the decisions he made seemed wrong at first glance
but, in replay he was absolutely correct. My only gripe was about
the “non-decisions” - the ones where fouls that should have been
given weren't – the free kicks wrongly awarded – that sort of
stuff. So, when the game is so close and goals so ridiculously
difficult to score every small error by the ref is multiplied and
affects the game much more that it should. Soccer is just too
haphazard for me. One team can clearly play better, create more
scoring chances, defend well, run rings around the opposition and
still lose because the ref makes a big mistake. Not good enough.

Wait a minute! Looking over the NFL
results from last week, I was summarily hoisted on my own petard!

I always do the prediction game in the
KC Star – for a bit of fun. Last week I thought I had a few
bankers. Firstly I had the Eagles to beat the Redskins. Score:
Eagles 24 – Redskins 27. I had the 49ers to whomp on the Chargers
at home. Result: Chargers 38 – San Fran 35. Everyone had the
Packers to slaughter the hapless Tampa Bay Bucks. Result: Pack 20 –
Bucks 3 (GB should have won this easily whilst resting their
starters). Lions 20 – Bears 14 – me and my gran should be able to
beat the Bears. Detroit are supposed to be challenging for a Super
Bowl berth. The NY Giants beat the St Louis Rams 37 – 27. The
Panthers beat the Browns! And, on Monday night the Bungles beat the
Broncos. Finally, the Raiders beat the Bills 26 – 24. (Even
though the Old Enemy beat the Chiefs – which will probably cost the
boys in red a play-off spot – they are without a doubt the worst
team in the league!)

What's going on?

All my injunctions about “Any Given
Sunday” seem to be happening at once. And it is just the very
small things that are costing teams bit-time.

Take the Chiefs on Sunday. Some very
tough calls by the officials (Charles fumble – a crazy spot short
of the first down, an absolutely set-in-stone pass interference call
in favour of Albert Wilson that the officials missed, missed and
missed again, etc.) meant that the game was decided not by the
players but by the officials.